OYE!

Forgettable music and routinely raunchy videos have defined the Punjabi pop landscape for years. But now, some young men are giving it a new respectability.

HERE CAN8217;T BE A PUNJAB without music. Passionate music. Be it a bustling city or a one-horse town, it will always have a gaanewallyan di gali singers8217; street. Suave Jalandhar has one, so does dusty Bathinda and even nondescript Moga boasts a boulevard lined with huge billboards of apple-cheeked crooners.

And with almost 100 albums released every month, the Punjabi music business is one high-octane trade. But quantity has hardly as-sured quality. When was the last time you heard one that really caught your ear? In the world of balle balle, crooners in search of easy fame come and go without leaving a lingering note. The music, as well as the repetitively raunchy videos, just sink from memory. But are things changing? Could be. Because, for a new crop of savvy singers, music is a seri-ous career choice.

Amrinder Gill, the dashing bank manager from a village near Amritsar, whose latest al-bum Dildarian was on top of the BBC playlist for over four months last year, speaksfor this tribe when he says: 8220;It8217;s my profession ji, I hope to followit for a lifetime.8221;

Delhi boy Gulzar, the latest kid on the music block8212;he bagged ETC and Zee Punjabi8217;s best male singer debut award last month8212;also nods his head vigorously, before giving you the low-down on how he and his cash-rich family of businessmen strategised his launch. 8220;First, I re-ceived training in music for five years,8221; says Gulzar. Then his brother did some market re-search to bag him the best composer and lyricist in the business. The release by Nupur Audio and the promotional blitz that followed were the grand finale. 8220;Of course, it8217;s a career, and it re-quires a lot of hard work and planning,8221; asserts the 23-year-old, who is packing his bags for Mumbai to explore a playback singing offer.

The soft-spoken Gill, who8217;s now on leave from the bank, agrees. A talented singer who bagged many medals in the inter-varsity folk music competitions during his Khalsa College days, Amrinder says fame came his way only with his third album Ik Wada, released by a Canada-based company. 8220;It was a result of good marketing coupled with good music,8221; says Gill, who is currently touring Canada.

Gurmeet Bhullar, who heads the film and music section of ETCand Zee Punjabi, says the change is for the good. 8220;Finally, the industry has begun to attract young and committed singers. They are not only well-educated, but grounded as well, and take pains to ensure that they don8217;t limit themselves to Punjab alone.8221;

Bhullar says the hard-drinking foul-mouthed whimsical singer is on his way out. And so is the well-heeled NRI, who came, cut an album, shot a 8216;daring8217; video, and left. But Hans Raj Hans, the veteran Sufi singer and 8216;Raj Gayak8217; of Punjab, rues that spoilt by money, recording companies now expect even established singers like him to foot the bill.

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8220;With youngsters taking the music route to im-migration, they don8217;t even spare people like me,8221; Hans laments. 8220;That8217;s why I8217;ve chosen not to record anything for the past three years.8221; But Hans is convinced this phase too will pass. 8220;Mark my words, finally only those with sur and taal will prevail.8221;

Lehmber Hussainpuri, a folk singer from Hussainpuri village near Jalandhar, is a good ex-ample. A cousin of Malkit Singh, Lehmber shot into the limelight through a collaboration with Birmingham-based Punjabi singer Dr Zeus on an album called Unda The Influence. Followed many singles which never really gave him his place in the sun. But his voice left a mark on his fans. And his maiden album Folk Attack released last year was a runaway hit. At Music World, a youngster goes into raptures at the mention of his name. 8220;He is the best,8221; he raves.

A great fan of Lata Mangeshkar8212;he calls her the mother of all singers8212;Hussainpuri says the secret of his musical success is the use of folk instruments such as the algoza, the toombi and the bagsu in his album.

This new tribe swears by melody and clean videos. Romi Ranjan, a sound engineer with Ja-landhar Doordarshan, whose album Ishq de Rang was adjudged the best of 2005 by MH-1 channel, grouses that bhangra pop has degen-erated into shor-sharaba cacophony accom-panied by semi-clad women. 8220;Music should make you float, it should give you peace, it shouldn8217;t make you feel like plugging your ears,8221; fumes Ranjan, who does regular riyaz under Puran Shah Koti, a renowned Sufi singer.

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The professionals are equally finicky about their videos. As Gill puts it: 8220;You shouldn8217;t have to hide them from your family.8221; Talent and market savvy they have, and they also have high ambition. So Gill wants to cut a track with Bryan Adams, while Gulzar and Ranjan dream of doing a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. As listeners, we can only wish them all the best.

With almost 100 new albums every month, the Punjabi music business is a high-octane trade. But in the world of balle balle, crooners come and go without leaving a note.

But not any more